Tech

Tech Companies Lay Out Game Plan To Keep ‘Dreamers’ In America

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Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
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A coalition of prominent tech companies are reportedly readying for a Congressional lobbying offensive to allow illegal immigrants known as “Dreamers” to stay in the U.S.

Under an alliance called The Coalition for the American Dream, corporations like Google, Facebook, Uber, Intel, and Microsoft intend to make direct appeals to Congress by demanding legislation that permits the immigrants to continue working in America, according to Reuters.

“Uber joined the Coalition for the American Dream because we stand with the Dreamers,” an Uber spokesman told The Daily Caller News Foundation, referring to the illegal immigrants who typically traveled to the U.S. from a foreign country with their parents at a very young age. “We’ve also held town halls, provided legal support and launched an online Dreamer Resource Center for any of our drivers.”

The hypothetical law would likely be similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the Trump administration is letting expire in March. Hundreds of businesses and their leaders joined forces prior to President Donald Trump’s decision, urging him in a September letter to leave those protections for Dreamers, which were implemented by former President Barack Obama. (RELATED: Zuckerberg Tells DACA Critics That ‘Dreamers Have A Special Love For This Country’)

That letter was published on its own unique site, but was also posted on an immigration reform lobbying group “FWD.us,” which is led by Zuckerberg and some of the other biggest names in the tech industry, like Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The consortium opposed Trump during the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, but ended up donating $5,000 to the Trump administration’s transition team.

As evidenced by both reports of a legislative push and the other collectively-supported letter, the larger tech industry has advocated for immigrants — both legal and illegal — for quite some time. (RELATED: Trump Wants To Work With Tech CEOs, But Who Will Be Willing?)

Around the start of the Trump administration, several big tech companies and their executives criticized the president for his executive order that restricted immigration from certain countries, with some even citing the fact that they are themselves immigrants or descendants of immigrants. A coalition, which included tech giants Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, later filed a legal brief in February opposing the temporary immigration ban.

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